Strategy Gaming / Atlas Reactor Dictionary

So, it has come to my attention that some people who are considering getting into Atlas Reactor have very little experience with multiplayer online battle arenas (“MOBAs”) or even online strategy gaming in general. Thus I thought it would be helpful to put together a dictionary of some commonly used terms and abbreviations to help you get up to speed. Obviously, it has a focus on Atlas Reactor, so there are lots of AR-specific terms as well, and some terms may have slightly different meanings in other games.

For those experienced folks reading this, let me know if there are terms you think would be good to include here! And new folks, if you’ve encountered a term that I don’t have listed here, let me know and I’ll add it!

1 — a character’s main ability, that has no cooldown. Hotkey 1. See “Primary.”

2, 3, 4 — a character’s second, third or fourth ability, respectively, which have Hotkeys 2, 3 and 4. Example: Kaigin’s 2 is something you really want to make sure you land.

5 — a character’s ultimate, usually referred to as “ultimate” or “ult” rather than by number. See “Ultimate.”

(number) on (lancer name) — a quick way of communicating damage so your team can calculate lethal, etc. For example, “34 on Nix” would mean I’ll be dealing 34 damage to Nix this turn. (Thanks to @TheTiltedHat for this entry)

A

Adrenaline — blast phase catalyst that grants the user Unstoppable until end of turn.

AoE — Area of Effect. Refers to abilities that deal damage across an area and may thereby hit multiple targets.

AR — Atlas Reactor. May also refer to an “all random” game mode in certain other games.

Awards — often refers to the post-game accolades, whereby one “Exemplar” (best overall performance), one “Devastator” (generally highest damage), one “Cornerstone” (generally most healing / damage mitigation) and one “Vanguard” (generally highest damage taken per life) are awarded for each game. A single player may receive multiple accolades in a single game.

B

Balance — the fine-tuning of numbers on abilities, etc. so as to make each character / ability / etc. fair and of roughly uniform overall power level, and to make the game fun in the right ways. Examples: “They made a few balance changes last patch by nerfing Zuki’s ult damage and Meridian’s heal.” “Blackburn is considered a relatively balanced freelancer.” “Meridian’s heal is extremely powerful, but it’s the star of his kit. The overall kit is pretty balanced.”

Ban — preventing a player, character or map from playing or being played. See “P/b.”

BB — short for Blackburn, a firepower freelancer.

BH — short for Black Hole, short for Miniature Black Hole, an ability in Helio’s kit.

BibleThump — a Twitch Chat emoji used to convey sadness.

Bio — short for “Biological Functions.” Refers to using the bathroom, generally, but could also apply to any maintenance of homeostasis (e.g. getting food or water). Basically saying you’re taking a bio means you need a quick break and you’ll be right back.

#BlameJames — a hashtag for blaming James, I guess, because, I don’t know, something was his fault at some point? James in this instance means Kytsu, a member of Trion’s Atlas Reactor team. (Thanks to @justifiable187 for this entry)

Blast Phase — see “Phase.” Blast Phase is the third phase of Resolution Phase, and is where most damaging abilities occur. Knockbacks happen at the very end of Blast Phase.

BM — short for “Bad Manners.” This term refers to doing something (often flashy or unnecessary) to disrespect the opposition, such as taunting, using certain overcons, wasting a cooldown because it isn’t needed to win, or occasionally typing something in chat. BM is a tricky animal. It’s disrespectful and can therefore be rude, and most attempts at BM simply look stupid. However, a “good” BM is generally considered acceptable, as it is ultimately for entertainment value rather than to actually insult.

Brain Juice — prep phase catalyst that reduces the user’s cooldowns by 1 at end of turn. Applies to abilities used that turn (which are then on cooldown).

Broken — generally means unhealthy for the game in some way, often overpowered. See “OP.”

Bronze — the lowest tier in Atlas Reactor ranked play. Often used in strategy games in general to refer to an unskilled player.

Brush — see “Camouflage.”

Buff — Has two meanings. 1) An effect applied to a unit that has some lasting impact on what the unit does (for example, a Might buff in Atlas Reactor increases that unit’s damage). A negative one (e.g. a Weaken effect that lowers your damage) is known as a “debuff” (but a debuff is a type of buff, so referring to Weaken as a buff is not strictly wrong). Note that buffs generally do not stack — i.e. if you have Might on you already, you cannot gain a second Might buff. If you have both Might and Weaken on you (or Slow and Haste), they offset. 2) To increase the power level of something, typically an ability in balance change patch notes (the opposite being “nerf”). Ex: Titus had his base damage buffed by 2 several patches ago.

Build — How a player customizes his character (strategically, rather than aesthetically). In AR, this refers to mod loadout and catalyst selection. See also “Mod.”

Burn — (1) dealing damage, particularly with intent to focus down a target. Other similar terms include “melt” or “nuke.” Ex: Burn that Celeste. (Thanks to Adrock#7207 for this entry.) (2) to use a cooldown unnecessarily; to waste (or to force an enemy to do so). Ex: Don’t burn your cata this turn. Let’s burn Phaedra’s Mending Swarm and then focus her. (Thanks to ElGrudgerino and Dojel for this entry.)

Burst — high amounts of damage dealt in a short period of time (often a single turn), or, as a verb, the dealing of such damage. Similar to the first meaning of “Burn.” The full phrase “Burst Damage” is often used for the noun (whereas Burn Damage or Melt Damage are not used this way).

Bush — another term for “Brush” or “Camouflage.”

C

Camouflage — often referred to as Brush or Camo, this is the technical term for the special squares that prevent characters from being seen. Using an ability in camo squares will temporarily “break the brush,” turning that strip of the black-and-white tiles red and preventing them from hiding anyone until the end of the following round.

Cata — Catalyst. These are special abilities that can be used once per match. You get one prep phase catalyst, one dash phase catalyst, and one blast phase catalyst. Each of those three is a selection between four options for that phase. The term “cata” also often refers to the dash phase catalyst specifically (which is generally the most powerful one). For example, if I say “I’m going to cata now,” I typically mean I’m going to use my dash phase catalyst this turn. (Note: The prep phase catalysts are Critical Shot, Brain Juice, Second Wind and Regenergy. The dash phase catalysts are Shift, Fetter, Fade and Regroup. The blast phase catalysts are Adrenaline, Probe, Echo Boost and Chronosurge.)

CC — Crowd Control. This term refers to disabling or otherwise controlling enemies by, for example, slowing them, stunning them (not applicable to AR), rooting them, knocking them back. (I would not include a weaken effect as CC, but that’s debatable and I’m not sure there’s a right answer.) Soft CC is generally a slow — the enemy can still act, but is restricted. Something like a knockback (or a stun in other games) is known as Hard CC.

CD — Cooldown. The amount of time (typically seconds in most games, but rounds in AR) before an ability is available again after it is used. For example, a cooldown of 3 means that a lancer cannot use that ability for the next 3 rounds (thus at the beginning of the 4th round it is available again).

Chase — To right-click an enemy, causing your lancer to automatically follow that lancer’s movement. Also known as “auto-follow.”

Chronosurge — a blast phase catalyst that slows nearby enemies and grants the user haste until end of turn.

Cloudspire — One of the five maps you can play on in Atlas Reactor, on the smaller side.

Comms — Communications, particularly those of a team in deciding strategy between turns.

Comp — short for “Composition.” Generally refers to the make-up of heroes or lancers of a given team. Ex: We’re running a very aggressive comp with three firepowers. Ex: We lost this one as early as p/b because their comp was better than ours.

Confirm — means securing a kill by dealing enough damage to kill an enemy freelancer, assuming said freelancer does not dash or receive unexpected healing.

Contender — The highest tier in Atlas Reactor ranked play, consisting of the top 20 players in each of the SoloQ, DuoQ and Team Ranked ladders.

Cover — essentially, taking half damage from attacks in a certain direction. Cover is the protection offered by short walls (or adjacency to certain taller walls) in Atlas Reactor. Characters can shoot over the short walls in either direction, but a character adjacent to cover takes reduced (typically half) damage from attacks from that direction.

Critical Shot — prep phase catalyst that grants the user Might until end of turn.

D

Dash — A mobility move, quickly getting a character to another location before the Blast Phase.

Dash Phase — see “Phase.” Dash Phase happens second in Resolution Phase (after Prep Phase), and involves characters moving (and sometimes dealing damage). Any character using a dash that turn cannot take damage during dash phase except from traps. (That is, other dashes will not damage them and their dash will not damage other dashers.)

Debuff — A negative buff. See “Buff.”

Decision Phase — see “Phase.”

Diamond — The third-highest tier in AR ranked play.

Discord — popular voice chat program used by many Atlas Reactor players.

DoT — short for “Damage over time.” Refers to a debuff that deals damage over time to the unit. (In most games, seconds. In Atlas Reactor, rounds.)

DPS — short for “damage per second.” However, it has become synonymous with damage dealers generally and is used that way colloquially. That is, it makes no sense to say “damage per second” in the context of a turn-based game like Atlas Reactor, but I might still say “I wanna go DPS this game” to imply that I want to play a firepower.

DuoQ — Duo Queue. Also referred to as simply “Duo.” The term refers to queuing for a ranked match as a two-some. See also “SoloQ.”

E

Echo Boost — blast phase catalyst that extends the duration of any active Might, Energized, Haste and Unstoppable buffs on the user for an additional turn.

ELO — a reference to the ELO ranking system used in chess, among other things. Generally refers to the skill level of the game or player. “This is a high ELO match.”

Energized — a buff that grants 50% additional energy generation to that character.

Energy — a resource in Atlas Reactor that fuels freelancer Ultimates. Energy starts at 0 and lancers gain 5 per turn passively. Most abilities grant energy when they hit. Most Ultimates require 100 (the maximum) energy.

Evos — 1) The map EvoS Laboratory. 2) The EvoS trust, one of the factions in Atlas Reactor.

F

Fade — a dash phase catalyst that teleports the character up to 3 squares and renders the character invisible until the end of the next decision phase.

FailFish — a Twitch Chat emoji used to indicate that someone on the stream (not necessarily the streamer) has done something extremely stupid; equivalent to a facepalm.

Feed — to give up kills easily. Ex: Helio, stop feeding. (Thanks to ElGrudgerino for the suggested entry, as well as several other entries.)

Fetter — a dash phase catalyst that teleports the character up to 3 squares, dealing 10 damage to enemies near the landing point and rooting them.

Fog — Fog of War. Refers to the areas of the map obscured for a team due to no nearby units granting vision. See also “Vision.”

FL — Frontline. The freelancers oriented towards absorbing damage, crowd control, and providing vision. May also occasionally refer to “Freelancer” but generally is not used this way so as to avoid ambiguity. Freelancer is typically referred to as “Lancer.”

Flame — to insult someone or generally be hostile in chat.

Flash — a term used by some players to refer to using a dash catalyst. Comes from the summoner spell “Flash” in League of Legends which is a short-range instant teleport (similar in some ways to the dash catalysts). (Thanks to Kerodon for this entry)

Flux — in-game currency used to purchase mods and lancers.

Flyway — Flyway Freighter. One of the five Atlas Reactor maps.

Focus — Short for “Focus Fire.” Coordinating damage on a single target.

FP — Firepower. The freelancers oriented towards dealing damage.

Free Action — an ability that does not count as your action for that turn. Ordinarily, lancers may either sprint 8 squares or use 1 action and move 4 squares. Free actions do not count towards either of these limitations.

Freelancer — A character in Atlas Reactor, “Lancer” for short. Other games use terms like “hero,” “champion,” etc. These terms may be used in AR as well — while not technical terms, they are easily understandable as well.

FT — Short for “Fate Transfer,” an ability in Orion’s kit.

G

Garry — short for Garrison, a frontline lancer.

GL HF — short for “good luck, have fun.” Often said at the beginning of games, and is considered polite (though saying it is not mandatory).

GG — short for “Good Game.” Often said at the end of a game, and is generally considered polite. A variant of this is “GG WP,” which means “good game, well played.” (“GG” may also be said during a game, often after a significantly good or bad play, as BM or to indicate that the player thinks the game is already decided and effectively over. This is less polite.)

GG Boost — a boost that may be used, at the end of a game, up to 3 times for each game. Each boost provides the user with 30% bonus experience and flux, and provides each other player in the game with a 10% bonus. Players often cooperatively boost when they see others boosting so there’s a larger pool for everyone.

Ghosting — see “Stream Sniping.”

Glass Cannon — a very squishy character that deals large amounts of damage.

Glyph Tag — your username, including the hashtag and the four numbers that appear after your name. I’m Tiggarius#0932.

Gold — the fifth-highest tier in Atlas Reactor ranked play.

Grand Slam — This term is not yet used in Atlas Reactor to my knowledge, but I’m coining it to refer to a game in which a single player receives all four post-game awards.

Gremo — short for Gremolitions, Inc., a firepower freelancer.

H

Hard CC — see “CC.”

Haste — a buff that increases movement by 50%. Opposite of “Slow.”

Heal — an ability or effect that restores hit points.

Hook — or Pull — likely means Rampart’s Fusion Lance ability, which pulls the target from a long distance (this counts as a knockback effect).

HoT — short for “Heal over time.” Refers to a buff that heals a unit over time (seconds in most games, rounds in Atlas Reactor).

HP — Hit points. When these reach zero, your character dies.

Hybrid — a character that can play more than one role or is somewhere in between two roles. In AR, every character is classified as Firepower, Frontline or Support, but for example PuP can play Firepower or Frontline and Khita can play Firepower or Support.

Hyperforge — the fifth / newest Atlas Reactor map.

I

Invis — Invisibility. Invisibility effects in AR render a character invisible for a period of time. The only thing that can directly counter invisibility is a Reveal effect, which will provide vision of the character notwithstanding the invisibility. However, an invisible character may still be hit by most moves — they cannot be directly targeted by a unit-target ability (such as Kaigin’s dash) if there is no vision, but if they are in the way of any line or area attack, they will be hit by it. Additionally, invisible characters will be temporarily revealed when they take damage, although this is only for a brief second (though still useful information as to their current position) and does not persist into the movement phase.

Juke — a fake-out move meant to confuse opponents as to your positioning. One common juke is a brush juke where you enter one square of a brush and then immediately turn and go a different way while hidden by the brush.

Jump — sometimes used colloquially to mean Dash. See “Dash.” (Thanks to Adrock#7207 for this entry.)

K

Kappa — a Twitch Chat emoji used to convey sarcasm.

Kit — What a given character can do, i.e., their ability set.

Kite — To keep an enemy (typically an enemy chasing you) at bay by keeping just enough distance between you and the enemy, especially in a situation where you are still able to deal damage to that enemy while running. Example: “I slowed Garrison so I should be able to kite him for a few turns without taking much damage.”

Knockback — The hardest form of CC in AR. It physically moves players at the end of Blast Phase and denies them the ability to move during Movement Phase.

Kreygasm — a Twitch Chat emoji used to convey orgasmic excitement or relief at something witnessed on stream.

Kytsu — see “#BlameJames.”

L

Ladder — refers to the competitive ladder of top players.

Lancer — See “Freelancer.”

Lethal — an amount of damage that is sufficient to kill an enemy. Ex: I have lethal on Oz this turn.

Lock In — Confirming your move. It will then be visible to your teammates so they can plan accordingly, and you won’t waste a time bank.

LoS — “Line of Sight” — occasionally referred to as just “Line.” Refers to spots that a character can see. However, as many abilities require line of sight (i.e. cannot be targeted through walls), it also often refers to the ability to hit another character with an ability. Example: I want to heal you next turn, so make sure you’re in my line of sight.

LW — short for Lockwood, a firepower freelancer.

M

Master — the second-highest tier in Atlas Reactor ranked play. The top 20 players of Master tier are the Contenders. May also refer to mastering a Lancer by reaching level 20, thereby unlocking the “Master Skins” for that Lancer.

Meta — meta generally refers to the current commonly-accepted strategical approach to the game. That is, the “meta” in SoloQ is picking a composition of 1 frontline, 2 firepower and 1 support. Zuki is a common pick/ban in the current meta. Oz would be an off-meta pick. Tournament play may have its own meta, or may have the same meta as ladder play. The meta may change over time, particularly with balance patches or the introduction of new freelancers.

Might — a buff that increases damage by 25%. Opposite of “Weaken.”

MMR — Matchmaking Rating. A hidden stat that affects who gets matched with whom in ranked games and how many points are earned from these games. Being in a low division but having high MMR typically means you will be matched with good players and will climb quickly. Because of Atlas Reactor’s small playerbase, this isn’t necessarily the case to the extent it is with other games.

MOBA — Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. Refers to several similar genres of game that generally involve close-knit PvP combat.

Mobi — the awesome community manager for Atlas Reactor! He no longer owes me a birthday game, but should probably play another one with me so I can avenge my incredibly poor Tol-Ren performance.

Mod — Modification. In AR, this term refers to the 4 or 5 options that modify any given ability. The “mod loadout” is customized by the player before the game. The player gets 10 “points” to spend across his 5 abilities, with each mod using up 1, 2 or 3 points.

Move — Colloquially, this means an ability action, movement, or an action and movement combination. It’s what you do on your turn, you make a move. Like in chess.

Movement Phase — See “Phase.” Movement Phase happens last during Resolution Phase and is the final step of a turn. Players who are not rooted or knocked back will be able to move several squares (typically 4 if an ability was used and 8 if not — see “Sprint”) subject to Slow and Haste buffs. Players may take damage from traps during this phase.

N

Nerf — To reduce the power level of something, typically as a developer might do to an ability that is too powerful. See “Buff,” second meaning.

Nuke — as a noun, a damage dealing ability. (“This guy has a lot of nukes in his kit.”) When used as a verb, to deal damage with such an ability. See also “Burn.”

O

Omni — 1) The map Omni Reactor Core. 2) The Omni Trust, one of the main factions in Atlas Reactor.

OP — short for Overpowered. Means a character, ability, etc. that is too strong.

Overcon — something you can use in-game to put an expressive icon over your character’s head temporarily. Purely cosmetic in effect.

P

P/b — Short for “pick/ban.” Refers to the draft phase of ranked play in which lancers are drafted for each team. Team A bans a lancer (whom no one can play), then Team B bans a lancer. Team A then picks a lancer. Team B picks two lancers. Team A picks two lancers. Team B picks one lancer. Team A picks their last lancer. Team B gets the final lancer pick.

Patch — An update to the game from the developers. You must download the latest patch before playing.

Peel — to attempt to keep an enemy off of an ally, typically by applying CC or pressure to that enemy and thereby “peeling” them off of your teammate.

Phae — short for Phaedra, a frontline freelancer.

Phase — Atlas Reactor is divided into two major phases, Decision and Resolution. Decision Phase is where players decide and lock in their moves. Resolution Phase is then where everything resolves and the damage is dealt, etc. Resolution Phase is subdivided into four other phases — Prep Phase, Dash Phase, Blast Phase and Movement Phase. The phases occur in this order and all events from a phase happen before the next phase is entered.

Ping — Marking a spot with an exclamation point to call teammates’ attention to it (maybe to mark the location of an enemy hero, or to mark a spot you want to move to). A ping is generally accomplished by pressing Alt and then clicking on the spot. You can also do an advanced ping by doing Alt+click then dragging in a direction (Danger, Focus this target, On my way, or Assist me). (Thanks to Adrock#7207 for this entry.)

PogChamp — a Twitch Chat emoji used to convey being impressed or excited by a skillful play.

Powerup — Sometimes spelled with a hyphen or as two words, this refers in AR to the Healing (Green), Might (Red), Energized (Yellow) and Haste (Blue) orbs that spawn on the various maps. A character moving over the buff will automatically pick it up and gain the appropriate buff.

PPL — Prep Phase League. This is a volunteer-run league that is currently the mainstay of the Atlas Reactor competitive scene.

Prep Phase — See “Phase.” Prep Phase is the first phase of Resolution Phase and generally involves shields, heals, traps and other preparatory abilities. May also refer to the Prep Phase League (see “PPL”).

Primary — refers to a lancer’s main ability (i.e. the first ability, with no cooldown). Sometimes referred to by other terms (from other games) including “auto-attacking,” “using your main ability,” or “Q.” (Many games have a character’s first ability on hotkey Q.)

Probe — a blast phase catalyst that reveals a target area for 2 turns. It shows units in camouflage but does not reveal invisible ones.

PvP — Player vs. Player. As opposite to vs. a computer (PvC or vs. AI) or vs. an AI-controlled environment (“PvE”). Also may refer to the PvP game mode in Atlas Reactor, which is essentially a casual non-ranked mode.

R

Ramp — short for Rampart. See “Rufflebucket.”

Ranked — competitive ladder play.

Razer Chroma — a set of 6 skins (Asana, Garrison, Elle, Lockwood, Dr. Finn and Su-Ren) that bear the Razer logo and change color, cycling through the rainbow spectrum in real time.

Reactor Roulette — A seldom-played game mode in AR in which a random game mode is selected.

Regenergy — prep phase catalyst that grants the user Energized until end of turn.

Regroup — a new dash phase catalyst that teleports the character to any target spot adjacent to an ally within 10 squares.

Resolution Phase — see “Phase.”

Reveal — A debuff that grants sight of the unit with the debuff (works through fog of war, brush, and invisibility).

Rez — Resurrect(ion). Refers to the respawning of dead characters.

Root — a debuff that prevents all movement that turn.

Round — a turn in Atlas Reactor. “Turn” and “round” are used basically interchangeably.

Rufflebucket — nickname for the lancer Rampart.

S

Salt — being upset about a bad outcome in a game. Adjective “Salty.” “Asana’s really salty about that lucky shot sniping her.”

Second Wind — prep phase catalyst that applies a buff that heals the user for 30 health over 3 turns (10 per turn). Healing buffs do stack if they are from different sources (e.g. healing powerup, lancer healing ability, Second Wind). Unlike the other prep phase catalysts, Second Wind is NOT a free action; however, it does permit full movement.

Shards — a special resource for Orion. Orion gains 1 shard for every 20 energy, and these make his other abilities more effective. However, Orion does not gain energy from his abilities (only passively and from taking damage — a special mechanic for him), and loses 75% of his energy on death.

Shield — a buff that absorbs damage. Essentially, shields act as temporary bonus hit points and are used up before any actual hit point damage is dealt. If the shield wears off before it is entirely used up through absorbing damage, the character generally does not receive any further value from it.

Shift — the most basic dash phase catalyst. Teleports the lancer up to 4 squares.

Silver — the sixth-highest tier in Atlas Reactor ranked play.

Skin — An aesthetic customization for a character that changes their overall appearance. Typically these are unlocked or purchased in some fashion and only one may be used at a time (i.e. for a given game).

Slow — A debuff that reduces movement by 50%. Opposite of “Haste.”

Soft CC — see “CC.”

SoloQ — Solo Queue. Refers to queuing for a ranked match by yourself. SoloQ, DuoQ and Team Ranked each have a separate ladder.

Sprint — also known as “Full Move.” Sprinting is forgoing using an ability that turn (or using only a free action ability or an ability that allows full movement) in order to move the full 8 squares. Very useful for repositioning.

Squishy — opposite of tanky. Means vulnerable when attacked because of a low base health pool or lack of defensive options.

Stream Sniping — watching someone’s live stream with the intent to see when they are queuing up for a match so as to queue against them. “Stream Ghosting” or “Ghosting” is a related term that refers to watching someone’s stream while in a game against them so as to see their movements / positioning / strategy / any other hidden info and abuse such information. Ghosting is also sometimes referred to as “Stream Sniping” — that is, Stream Sniping can be somewhat of a catchall term for any abuse of information gained from watching an opponent’s stream. (Thanks to Dojel for help in clarifying this entry)

Sub — 1) A subscriber to a Twitch streamer, or the act of subscribing. 2) A substitute player on a competitive team.

Tank — a gaming term that generally refers to a character that absorbs damage and protects the rest of the party or team. In Atlas Reactor, generally means a frontliner. Someone can also be “tanky” (opposite “squishy”).

Taunt — upon using an ability, you may elect to have the character Taunt it (if you own the appropriate taunt), which results in a short cutscene of the character saying a line before using the ability.

Team Ranked — Team Ranked is when a team of 4 queues together for a ranked match. It used to only be available on Tuesdays, but can now be played whenever — but Tuesday is still a common day for it per tradition. See also “SoloQ.”

#ThanksWill — A hashtag for thanking Will, apparently used when a lancer survives at 1 hp (presumably as a nod, either sarcastic or genuine, to the fine-tuned balance of the game resulting in that narrow miss). Will is a member of Trion’s Atlas Reactor team (I believe he’s lead designer — have to check). (Thanks to @justifiable187 for this entry and to Dojel for the clarification)

Tier — a certain level of ranking. For the ladder system, there are tiers ranging from Master / Contender down to Bronze, each with 5 divisions within that tier. (They are no longer called, say, Plat II, but are now referred to in-game by numbers. Diamond I = 1, Bronze V = 25. But many of us still say Plat II rather than Rank 7.) Once you rank up to a new tier, you cannot fall back down unless you decay by not playing. Tier may also refer to a general ranking of lancer strength. S+ tier is must-pick or must-ban (Zuki). S tier is high priority pick or ban. A tier is strong characters. B tier is average characters. C tier is weak characters. Etc.

Tilt — the condition of being in a bad mood, generally due to having lost or played badly or had some unfortunate outcome occur previously, often such that it affects your play going forward. “Man, I’m super tilted from that last game.” “It tilts me when people don’t ban Zuki.”

Time Bank — You get two time banks per game of AR. A time bank gives you 5 additional seconds that turn to lock in a move.

Trap — Something placed on the ground that causes an enemy to take damage if they move through it. Typically traps are placed in Prep Phase.

Twitch Chat — basically a hivemind of questionably sentient primates that communicate in memes and emojis but would probably type the works of Shakespeare if given enough time.

U

Ult — Ultimate. The most powerful ability of a character, often usable less frequently than the character’s other abilities.

Unstoppable — a special buff that prevents the character from being affected by movement-impairing effects, including slows, roots and knockbacks.

V

Vertical Dash — a special kind of dash that avoids traps (by going “above” them — the character goes up into the air and comes down at the target spot).

Vision — what your team can see. In Atlas Reactor, every character can see 6 squares. In general, if you can see someone, they can see you too. Exceptions include the Reveal debuff, Grey’s hawk drone Rio, and the Probe catalyst, which all grant vision above and beyond what the character can see. Additionally, camouflage and invisibility effects make characters invisible (but do not inhibit their ability to see you!).

W

Wall — May refer to an actual wall on a map, or may refer to Helio’s Disruption Matrix ability or Rampart’s Bulwark ability.

Weaken — a debuff that reduces damage dealt by 25%. Opposite of “Might.”

Wood Tier — below even Bronze. It doesn’t really exist, but people often refer to it jokingly. Ex: I don’t play Juno…my Juno play is wood tier.